This reminds me of an event that happen in Michigan in December of 2000. A BAX Global DC-8 accidental landed at East Tawas (6D9) instead of Oscoda (KOSC). East Tawas has a 4800 ft long, 100 ft wide, runway. The wingspan of the DC-8 is 142 feet. Oscoda has a runway that measures 11,800 by 200 ft. The airports are eight miles apart and have a similar orientation.

It's not the firs time it's happened and won't be the last. Probably my favorite example is when a a jet landed at Wiley Post instead of Will Rogers in OKC. The airports do have a similar configuration, but Wily Post is much smaller and 10 miles away. If that wasn't enough the 6 lane I-40 freeway is runs though OKC almost due east to west and one airport is north of it the other is south.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.

Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.

“He (the pilot) hemmed and he hawed and he said ‘We have landed at an Air Force base a few miles from the Rapid City airport and now we are going to figure out how we’re going to get from here to there,’” Morrell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press by cell phone during the delay Saturday.

Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.

Northwest confirmed that the crew made an “unscheduled landing.”

“The situation is under review and we have nothing further to add,” said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. He would not identify the cockpit crew, or say if the pilot made an error.

Ellsworth controls all air space 40 miles around the base and clears landings at both the civilian airport and the base.

The city’s airport runway is “just over the hill” from Ellsworth, and the Northwest crew had to descend through a layer of clouds, said a base spokeswoman, Lt. Christine Millette.